Leaves of Autumn
by Kai the Enchanter
Summary: The Nation of Fire has been crushed.. The world is in turmoil, and the survivors of Konoha attempt to live on, to gain greater strength, greater allies, and in hopes that eventually, they will defeat their foes and rebuild their home.


Leaves of Autumn

By Kai the Enchanter

Disclaimer: Naruto...well, I don't own it, though I'd like to

Prologue: Snake and Dragon

The Hidden Village of the Leaf, at dawn. The skies are cloudy and gray, and a light but cold rain falls upon the area. However, the rain is not enough to drive away the pervasive smoke that hangs over the remains of Konohagakure. There are fires burning in the wreckage of what was once the mightiest of all shinobi villages, and they are well-sheltered from the rain. The smoke that rises from them rises with the putrid scent of burning flesh. Not cooking flesh, but burning flesh, acrid and pungent. There are screams, too, screams of the survivors, not survivors being tortured, mind you, not physically, but the screams of villagers finding the remains of their loved ones among the wreckage.

Atop the mountain that bears the images of the great Hokages who defended the Leaf in times past is one more great horror.

Upon her own image, right on the sculpted diamond is a copy of that which her forehead bears, is Tsunade-Hime, granddaughter of the Shodai Hokage, the Godaime Hokage. She has been nailed there by five dai kunai.

The surviving villagers pay no attention to it. There is much too much to deal with already. Only days have passed since the armies of Dawn and Sound simultaneously attacked the Leaf, and after their victory, fell to squabble with one another. Their bickering had done more damage to the village than the original battle had been able to do, and thus did the village come to its present condition.

The marauding enemies had left the village after it became clear that there was business elsewhere. Orochimaru's tenuous alliance with the Akatsuki had crumbled, and as a result, other villages were beginning to have an easier time resisting their enemies.

Lightning Country was the first to be crushed, and many of its shinobi had been welcome additions to Dawn or Sound, whichever chose them. Wind was annihilated by another joint assault, and its ruling council had ordered the Kazekage to take his most elite shinobi and flee, in order to pursue the hit-and-run tactics of guerilla warfare.

Tactics that would be ultimately hopeless, now that the entire country was enslaved, and enemy shinobi everywhere used innocent citizens as body shields.

Stone was proving much more difficult to defeat. Attacking them in their home territory was essentially the same as fighting guerillas. Their village was too well hid, spread out over many a mountain range, and their shinobi had no wish to leave themselves in the open. Most forays into the country had ended in disaster. It was clear that at least one of the nine would have to go with a detachment of troops, if the invasion was to succeed. Akatsuki had the upper hand, compared to Orochimaru's forces, as far as the western part of the continent went.

The Mist Village, however, was practically untamable, even in comparison to Stone. Orochimaru had used his Sound forces to attack many times, but they were repelled without fail. Akatsuki had even sent in agents of espionage, posing as the dispossessed shinobi of sacked villages. The Mizukage's response had been to send the agents back, dispossessed of their internal organs. If there was one last bastion of hope in what seemed to be a world gone mad, it would have to lie with the Mist shinobi, who trained themselves relentlessly, understanding that this was no petty maneuvering for political dominance, but rather a ruthless battle for survival. If they won, they won the right to live, nothing more. If they lost, they would either be traitors, slaves, or corpses.

Oddly enough, the philosophy was taken quite well by the Mist shinobi, who seemed perfectly adjusted to their fate. The war had done one thing right, at least, and that was to reunite the country. No longer did people hate advanced bloodlines, as they had become the saviors of the nation. Their powers, many of which dealt with the control of the waters of the boundless sea, had driven off many an attack. They were heroes, and though they may not have been well-loved, they were certainly respected and appreciated.

And so it was. The world was in shambles, and now the legions of the Akatsuki and their "League of Dawn" (supposedly they would not form an official nation until all their foes had been crushed), faced off against the reborn nation of Sound. Somehow Orochimaru had managed to gather enough treacherous shinobi to his cause, and he could now be regarded as a legitimate military threat. Somehow. The Akatsuki didn't know what it was, and they didn't want to know much about it, beyond how to stop it. Something was very wrong about Sound's new strength, and it stank in a way that made Akatsuki's powers look innocently inherited.

They, of course, had not gained power in any such way. Many of the Jinchuuriki had been slain instead of captured, but with five in their possession, they managed to channel great power into their troops, allowing them much more than their usual chakra, though their powers were still in some ways limited by their natural ability as shinobi. This meant that the nine leaders were still absolute in their strength over their minions, and it was a comforting thought. The leaders bickered constantly, but somehow had managed to piece together a coherent alliance, based on the idea that one day, the bijuu would return.

Their plan was simple. Orochimaru's immortality jutsu was weak in comparison to the multitudes of techniques they had at their disposal, and more importantly, they had the chakra to pull off any technique they needed. So they decided to wait for the youma to reincarnate themselves into the fabric of reality, to will themselves back into existence. When they returned, lackeys would be sent out, mind-controlled into sealing the beasts, which could then be returned for...utilization. Once all of them had been captured and the lands united, they would be once again divided, into separate nations for each Akatsuki member, and with one youma for each. The leader, however, would not have any such nation. He planned to wander aimlessly, with two youma's powers in tow, experiencing all the pleasures that could be had, and keeping the others in line from time to time. After all, who would dare challenge the man with a single bijuu's strength, let alone one with two?

Orochimaru, however, was the one thorn in their side. As one of the few shinobi left who had the strength to oppose them, he was also capable of enduring the ages, and could quite possibly slowly gnaw at the organization until it fell, despite his being weaker than many of the members, even with his new Sharingan eyes.

Those eyes were the roots of the suspicions of the Akatsuki. They believed that Orochimaru wasn't doing a good job of recruiting shinobi to his cause, but rather was combining bloodlines and cloning shinobi in order to create "perfect" armies. It would certainly explain the newfound strength of his troops, and it would perfectly fit his twisted mind.

And so it was. The world turned upside down, and none left to turn it right-side up again. None? Perhaps not, for it seems that we have missed a detail, or perhaps ignored it. On the outskirts of Konoha, hidden in the trees, are a small group of shinobi. They are dressed in black and blue robes, and while one has affixed his gaze upon Tsunade's corpse, the others stare at the village as a whole.

"Why?" One of the shinobi looks at his companion, the one staring at Tsunade's lifeless body. He sighs, and rubs his eyes, almost yawning. Clearly he is tired.

"You know why, Naruto. The Akatsuki want everything, and so does Orochimaru. You know it was inevitable. Troublesome, but inevitable." It is Naruto's turn to sigh, and he glares at his pineapple-haired companion.

"I didn't mean to ask why it was destroyed, Shikamaru. I wanted to know why Jiraiya and old lady Tsunade refused to let us defend the village. We could have held out longer, we might have even won!"

"And then what? Even if we'd won, which we couldn't have, what would have happened? We're cut off, Naruto. Fire Country's coastlines belong to Orochimaru. We have no allies that can reach us. We'd just sit here and wait for the next attack. And for your information, Hokage-sama and Jiraiya-sama refused to let us help because they knew that they couldn't win. That's why they barely let anyone except a handful of ANBU volunteers help, and they accepted help from less than half of them, at that. They knew that this was their battle, and if someone had to die then, it would have to be one of them. Being Hokage is about being the pillar, the sacrifice of the country, Naruto. You weren't Hokage yet. It wasn't your decision, or your sacrifice to make." Naruto seemed to accept this, though he growled upon hearing it, and turned his face away. Shikamaru sighed, catching a glimpse of the eyes that revealed that in his anger, Naruto was tapping into Kyuubi's strength.

"We need to go back. The others are probably waiting for us, and it's pretty damn certain that we've confirmed that the village has been razed. The only loose end is Jiraya-sama. No clue where he is, but if he's alive, and not captured, he'll be sure to turn up eventually. We can't help him now. We can barely help ourselves." Naruto just nodded at Shikamaru's words, and the other three shinobi with them added their assent.

One of the other shinobi, a tall thin man with short black hair, took a long drag at his cigarette, and put it out on a tree trunk.

"There's a lot of work left for us to do, eh?"

Standing next to Naruto, on his other side was Haruno Sakura.

"Yeah. We can rebuild, some other day. If we win." Her turquoise eyes shone with moisture, but she wiped it away. Naruto looked at her, and some of his anger evaporated, and worry took its place.

"Sakura-chan—" The last of the shinobi cut him off.

"No time for that right now, Naruto. We have to meet up with the others. If we can, we should try to gather up everyone we can, find out if the rumors that the Kazekage and his elite forces are wandering about are true, and meet up with them if they are. After that, we'll head for either Stone Village or Mist Village, depending on what's more convenient at the time. They are our only hope of overcoming our foes. We can't let up now. We have to prove to the Akatsuki that this war is just beginning." The rains continued to fall, and still the shinobi stood their, looking at what remained of their home.

It was Naruto who made the final decision to leave. Standing up from his crouching position, he turned around, wiping away his own tears.

"He's right. We have to go. One day, we'll be back, and we'll make those bastards pay. But right now, we're nothing compared to them. We have to make the best of our time." Now, though, doubts were being expressed in Naruto's companion's eyes.

"Are you sure, Naruto? From what we can see, the village is mostly abandoned. If you want, a few of us might be able to sneak in, retrieve Hokage-sama's corpse, and give her a proper burial." Naruto shook his head, sighing again.

"Former ANBU commander, don't forget your duty, because I have no intentions of forgetting mine. Right now, paying our respects to the dead is extra stuff, and probably too dangerous to even be considered. We can't do it, no matter how much we want to." Aburame Shino bowed his head, exhaling slightly.

"Forgive me for insinuating that you would forget your duty and place emotional bonds over it, jeopardizing our people. It was out of line, and it was an insult to your record as a Leaf shinobi." Naruto rubbed the bridge of his nose as he looked at the insect-wielding shinobi, and smiled ruefully.

"You were right, though, right on the mark. I would do it myself if I weren't sure that if we don't, we have a better chance of getting revenge on those bastards. You knew how much I wanted it. Don't encourage it, that's all. Now come on, Kakashi-sensei and the others are waiting for us." With those words, the four Konoha shinobi vanished into the morning rain, their hair and clothes soaked and chilled, but their hearts still aflame with the will of fire that marks every warrior of the Leaf.

End of Prologue...

So anyway, I'm back. I felt like I had to, now that I write a bit better, and after reading Flashfyre5's bit on how the Naruto fandom is going downhill. I have to agree with him, it's turning into a crock of crap. I barely even touch things that I haven't already read before, or aren't the recommended favorites of authors that have been tried and proven. There's just too much shit to wade through. I deleted the old Leaves of Autumn because I felt that I had stepped into something much too freaking big for me, and it was getting a bit turgid. Also the ongoing storyline in the Naruto manga was doing much too much damage to the story. So I reevaluated, and started over. This one is much darker, and probably looks more like Shadow of the Leaf than the original LOA. I'd also like to claim it'll be a great deal better, but only time will tell. Thanks for reading, and if it doesn't bother you too much, please review.


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